New Bluetooth TPMS in Development

Its been a while since I have been on the forums, I see that we have crossed the 1000 post mark on the primary TPMS development thread which is great news as it shows that many of you still continue to use your systems and there also many new users which continue buy and use the USB TPMS kit. I am glad to say that we have sold over 200 TPMS systems which is far beyond what I had intially expected back when we did our beta test. I really want to thank Robby, Wolfgang and the other developers who have made this truely a great device for us CarPC users, and also would like to thank all of you testers and forum members as your feedback has been priceless in overcoming all the obstacles we had to face through development.

The first prototype of USB TPMS was developed back in 2007 by none other than RobbyBMW. In 2008 I was able to work with Robby to design and manufacture something that users with little or no technical knowledge could now use. It is now 2012 and USB TPMS is well into maturity, and is now a fairly stable and well functioning device.

I have also seen a shift in the CarPC industry to newer technologies. Many of you are starting to use Tablets and Smartphones as your primary mobile hardware interface as they are feature rich, provide excellent mobility, can be easily installed without having to excessively modify the interior of your vehicle, and with most tablets priced in the $300 to $500 they are very affordable.

With the USB TPMS being such a great success I feel like its now time for the next level. My parent company Circuitronics Corporation has now shifted its focus to product development and we now have the necessary equipment and people to develop cutting edge electronic products. In fact we have already successfully developed hardware products that interface with tablets both via USB and Wirelessly. Using this technology and knowledge I am now developing the next generation TPMS system. I don't want to divulge too much, but basically we are working towards a new version of the hardware that will use Bluetooth to wirelessly communicate with an 'App' to show tire pressure and temperature data on a smartphone or tablet. We have taken all feedback into consideration and are also working to fix other areas of the design that have room for improvement.

I really value all of your feedback so I want to start this thread to see if any of you have any comments, suggestions, or ideas for the new system both on the App side and the hardware side. There is no way we can incorporate all of your suggestions but if we see that many of you desire a certain feature then we will take the time to implement it if possible. If you like what you are reading and want to get your hands on this before anyone else then be sure too look out for a pre-order in the coming months as there will be a beta test for this new product prior to retail release.

Lok the one complaint i have is there is no time stamp when the last pressure reading was taken. Dosen't have to be clock time, relative would be great, A more sensitive receiver would be great. Also many new cars have tpms systems, removing them would cause problems, are you thinking of doing a mulit prorocol receiver?

As of now I plan on continuing to use the 3rd Eye TPMS sensors only because I can easily get them and I know that they will work and I know that I can continue to buy them from the supplier in the future. I also have the RF circuit of that frequency already designed so there isn't as much design work that I have to go through. If there are any other readily available sensors I am willing to do some initial tests to see if I can get them to work with the new system.

i.e., an add-on box that plugs into the usb port of the existing third eye box we already have. Will probably require external 12V power, but that's O.K. just don't make me have to find a 5V source.

We plan to make this a 12VDC device so that It can be used with a cigaratte lighter adapter. There are some plans to design an adapter board for existing users but we need to see if it can be easily done.

I have an application that requires just the sensors themselves. Where can I source a dozen or so of these for testing purposes? This is not for a car but rather is an alternate solution.

I now see from the clarification that the sensors in this thread are NOT bluetooth sensors so they would not do any good for my applicaiton. In fact, so far it appears that nobody makes BT TPMS sensors (at this time). It sure would be a LOT more convenient to simply allow handheld devices to leverage a signal that they already receive (such as BT) rather than having to route the signals through soem 3rd-party box (like in this thread) but that isn't the way of this world (apparently).